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Frieda
Frieda is a character in the Ghostwriter book Digging For Clues. She is studying to be an archeologist and likes discovering history. Summary Gaby, Tina, and Jasmine are working together on a project to about New York history. Jasmine had told them of her idea of using a construction site for a new supermarket where some old objects had been found near her apartment. They go to the lobby of the apartment building to see a woman named Frieda talking to a large crowed. Frieda reminds an elderly woman that she used to ask her many questions about the olds buildings and signs, and the way people used to live in the area. The woman also remembers the many inquiries. Frieda explains that she still likes to find history, and shows the crowd an artifact from the 1600s that she had discovered in the construction site nearby. She hopes to find more clues from who had lived there years ago, and asks the audience to help. Frieda explains that Office of Historic Preservation would only stop the construction if there was proof that the house was not just a usual one from the 1600s. She also mentions that they only have a limited amount of time to discover. If they do not, the construction would stay on schedule. A man in the audience protests that the neighborhood needs the supermarket more than the history. Frieda responds that she used to live here, and that her mother still does. She understands that the supermarket needs to be built, but wants to find the history first. The audience agrees with her to help dig for more artifacts. Gaby, Tina, and Jasmine explain their project and ask if they can provide video coverage, and Frieda is excited. Gaby asks Frieda if she finding artifacts is her job. She explains to that she and Ted, who is working with her finding the artifacts, are graduate students from Columbia University. They are currently working in the site for free, but would get paid for projects like they are working on now. The next day, Gaby and Tina meet Jasmine at the construction site, which now has been divided into sections and people are carefully digging for artifacts. Frieda tells them that the area used to be a farmhouse, since it used to be farmland. Brooklyn and Manhattan were first settled by the Dutch, and that many places in New York have Dutch names. However, in 1664, the area was taken over by English settlers, and Frieda thinks that the farmhouse belonged to Dutch people that were required to leave. Jasmine shows the pendant that the trio had discovered in the site the day before, and wonders if it is Dutch. Frieda replies that it is definitely African, and calls her partner Ted over to look it the pendant. Ted states that they could prove that the construction site is worth stop construction if more valuable objects like the pendant were found, and Frieda agrees. Later, the Ghostwriter team figures out from a poem that Ghostwriter had found that treasure is buried in the site. They go to the C-7 section, where there is an old box. Frieda mentions that it would not be too harmful to open it since it was not air tight. Inside, there is an old Bible, journal entries that a girl named Maartje Salee had written, as well as the poem. They see that there is also a drawing of a tree on the poem. Jasmine discovers that the tree is on the fireplace of the farmhouse, and Frieda asks Tina to be the one to follow the poem’s instructions since she is eleven, as Maartje was when she wrote the journal entries. The poem guides her to outside of the roped area. Ted comments that they were not planning to dig there, but Frieda replies that they were possibly incorrect about that. They dig until hitting something hard, and Ted carefully brushes away the dirt to reveal tiles arrange in the pattern of the letter X. Frieda is amazed that X actually marked the spot, as was mentioned in the poem. She and Ted retrieve a box, and open it to find brass African figures. Frieda mentions that Maartje’s father was African American, and that the farmhouse was one of the first African settlements in Brooklyn. She states that they could figure out how Maartje’s family lived day to day. Suddenly, a bulldozer comes near the area. Frieda yells for everyone to move. Ted stops it from running over Alex, but afterward, they discover that the most valuable artifacts are missing, including the brass figures. Frieda is quite distressed, and tells Ted to calls the police, and asks for someone to help her look for the artifacts. After a bit, Frieda wearily tells the group that perhaps since the artifacts are gone, that they should give up on the project. However, the people that answer back are confident that the site is still important, and that they could find more artifacts. Frieda decides to come back the next day. The team comes to the site the next day, and discover the missing items in a trailer belonging to Mr. Barrett, a man opposed to finding history in the site since he wanted the construction to be finished in time. Weeks later, Frieda attends a party for Gaby, Tina, and Jasmine winning the history contest. She states that she is glad that everything with the site and the problems turned out fine. Jasmine comments that she is frustrated that with archeology, one might not discover more facts to complete questions about what had occurred. Frieda asks if she is still interested in archeology, and Jasmine answers that she is. Category:Book Characters